Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery Takes on a New Director and a New Direction

Lancaster, California has a museum downtown - two of them actually. The larger of the two is the local art musuem which goes by the interesting name of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and the smaller museum is called the Western Hotel Museum.

Both facilities are operated from the same museum office, a Lancaster city operation.

The Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery (LM/AG) is a long-standing institution that has recently signed on a new director who has revised the interior layout and floor-plan of the local art museum, creating more space for art. (Note: Ground has already been broken for a new facility to house the LM/AG on Lancaster Boulevard.)

For years, the LM/AG was known for exhibiting rather small-scale art shows that were entirely locally produced.

The museum continues to offer local "district-wide" high school art exhibitions for students of the Antelope Valley as well as an annual Antelope Valley juried show drawing works from high desert towns and cities (Palmdale, Lancaster, Quartz Hill, Rosamond, Lake Elizabeth, Lake Hughes, and Tehachapi).

Under new initiatives, the local art museum has recently been moving to expand its focus and bring in larger exhibits as well as artists from outside the Antelope Valley.

In light of the continuing local showcases, we can see that the local art museum's new attitude has not led it to abandon its dedication to local art and artists, but rather to enhance and deepen its focus on presenting more art.

Recent exhibits at Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery include a traveling show from the Weisman Art Foundation of Los Angeles called "Elements of Nature" and an exhibit of paintings and drawings by artist Tom Miller in a show titled "A Fool's Paradise".

Formerly, this local art museum was only an art museum during the juried shows of local artists. For the rest of the year, the museum put on local history exhibits, which continue to show at the Western Hotel Museum now.

In addition to local and Western history displays, the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery had a permanent children's display of ten-foot-tall dinosaurs and colorful a-historic, non-art objects.

Lancaster's local art museum continues to offer family days as well as local history shows, as evidenced by an upcoming show about what Lancaster was like during World War II, an exhibit of photography and objects from the era.

Under its new director, the LM/AG has hosted some exciting art exhibits with large works, expansive visions of the nature of art and nature in art. Additionally, the local art museum has hosted lectures by local professors on subjects of art, media, and art collection.

*
Admission to LM/AG is free. Find out more about hours of operation and location HERE.